Identity (Poetry)

What does it say — this photograph?
What clues does it give to character
to sense of time and place?

It shows an image — just
the likeness of a young girl’s face
and clothes that were in season once
hide the rest from view

the body language awkward/shy
does not explain a thing of who
she was in that half-smile

no give-aways to where or why
she stood there while the camera
stole a minute of her life
preserved it for someone to ask
such questions

                                oddly curious
to know something about her past —
a link to tie her kith and kin
a name to call her ghost.